way. can you give an update as to locating housing for those who have been displaced? >> locating housing in texas? >> housing in texas. i mean, for those who need housing, be it texas, be it outside of the state. >> i'll answer both. in texas, again, back to praising the governor. he's done what we hadn't seen done so well in the past. that is he's owning the housing problem with a task force he's initiated. also assigned a person to be in charge of long-term recovery and four or five solutions to the housing problems in texas. of course, some of them are short lived. what you have to do, find short-term solutions. people can stay in their home. it's been flooded. when the drywall's ripped out, repairs begin, have to find another place to live temp rare. finding hotel solutions. some cases fema manufactured a manufactured housing solution. mobile home, travel trailer on your property to live in a period of time while your home is being repaired. ideal solutions when enough

acreage on your lot for that housing unit to sit. then move back into your home and we can remove that temporary unit. essentially that's the option now. the third option, of course, is just distance. so there's available rental stock, but you have to draw a larger circumference as people move away from their homes into rental stock available farther away. analysis done on the available rental stock and housing stock available. get that to you after the podium brief. in florida, a slightly different issue. we haven't abscessed entirely the damage. >> the same -- >> florida the same model. remember, it's a peninsula and a wider-scale problem and a larger swath storm. what we'll do there, assess whether those the right models or apply different creative solutions. we have the authority and budget to do so. we'll make sure people are taken care of. >> and concern about the mobile homes and wound up with issues from formaldehyde.

is that cleared up? a big concern about mobile home communities just being -- in place after katrina. is that kind of -- out of the mind-set now or still part of the mind-set? >> mind-set, that people have a safe place to live is very much alive. as a government we purchase available manufactured housing. don't make it and purchase it off the open market. i think the open market improved building practices and we've improved through that experience in knowing who to buy from and who not to buy from. and i understand that problems of ambient air quality persist in our everyday lives. i don't now how much formaldehyde is in this room but i know it's a carcinogen at any level. the point here is that we take it very seriously and will make sure we message seriously the importance of, of -- you know, basically ventilation. to my knowledge, we buy off of a better market now and provide that solution in a more tailored and responsible manner. if i can --

>> a couple questions about the conditions in florida. first of all, more than half of floridians are now without power. usually a very local issue, but this is a -- catastrophe of a grander scale. when is it your assessment that people in florida can expect to get power back and what is the federal government's role in making that happen? >> my numbers somewhere north of 5 million. if the number's higher i don't know if that constitutes half the people in florida. take your word for it. >> households and businesses a lot more. >> a significant number. to the extent that a customer might have four people in the household, see that number increase. number of people then, four in the home. number of customers one. that's the difference. the idea here is the i said earlier we all have a joint role in this. florida power and light, duke electric, other bringing forces to bear. u.s. government brings a number of forces imperative to the restoration effort like pushing

debris out of the way and clearing roadways. yesterday we saw reports of but actual evidence of this will be "the" largest ever mobilization of line restoration workers in this country period, end of story. already mobilized yesterday. they were at the daytona speedway. we will have line restoration workers from every company in this country from states all over country but also from canada coming to florida to help restore the lines. in florida unlike in houston, buried power lines in florida strung on poles and we have to restore poles restring lines and the way that process works, they restore the plant and the subplant and then line by line, each road and then house by house. you can't hook up each house until the homeowner makes sure it's safe. you don't want to burn down the house with flood damage, corroded lines and so forth. a literally joint effort from federal clearing to public and private partnerships to line restoration efforts partnered in the for-prompt and regulated world through to the individual

homeowner. that's how that process works. >> how long will that take? >> i caution people to be very patient here between re-entry and that process. we could have power down in homes for the coming weeks. weeks. now i don't want to cause panic in florida, and come to a question here, next, there are hospitals and nursing homes and other facilities that have generator power to provide services that are necessary. and there the concern is providing fuel to those generators should she run out. from that perspective, the federal government provide as great deal of fuel, a great deal of transport assistance through contracts and give that fuel state and locals and they distribute to those, whole sale and retale distribution. we expect that to happy seamlessly. sir? >> is preventing price gouging in the state of florida a federal responsibility or is it up to the state officials in florida? >> can be both. i think you'll hear from the attorney general later. i'll let him explain what eel do

to prevent fraud. announce an effort on that this week, i think. and you've heard pam bondi announce she is conducting active gouging and anti-fraud practices when state and local laws are at play. both is the answer. neither official, the attorney general of the united states or the attorneys general of the states will tolerate gouging. something people ought to think twice about. sir? >> a possibility of a third and fourth supplemental for disaster relief. can you tell us how much money the administration once including those supplementals and put language cap insurance in that ledge xwlags. >> first point. no. we pursued this to make sure we have responsible estimates as opposed to wild guesses now. going for the money we need and transition into recovery analyze damage figure how much money we need and go up for another responsible request. got it wrong, go for another if necessary. not necessarily wrong, but

estimate and find actuals don't meet the estimates we'll rectify. with respect to flood insurance, see how many claims come in. $8.6 billion round about available. >> hoping on the efforts to evacuate americans in the caribbean. the state department's task force working around the clock in operations. can you assess those efforts and give a message to americans right now in dire straits in the caribbean. what's the expectation for evacuation? how soon can the americans get the americans out? >> preaching caution to make sure people understand this is an ongoing effort and still going to be long, painful days ahead. i am doubling down on my assertion this is "the" best integrative full-scale response effort in our nation's history including the u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico and nine u.s. islands where we helped american citizens during a

window of operational safety between jose and irma. this has been a large event. you're going to see a lot of positive stories from it. control expectations, on an island have to transport commodities, food and water pap long road ahead to bring electric power back online assembled two of the most powerful flotillas total of nine large ships. cut right to the kearsarge wasp mclean and "uss abraham lincoln "and iwo jima, an air craft carrier and large platform for helicopters. an operation, most americans, can't picture it, never mobilized for this type of emergency response nefrt our history. so to the extent i can assess it, pretty proud of that. the extent it meeds the need, hope it does, because we're saving hundreds if not thousands

off this island collectively. we're mobilizing ourselves in ways we never did before and governor matt, president of the united states and the governor of puerto rico rosella are pleased in phone calls today. i'm in no better from this podium or where they are to assess it as a positive action. >> so many people evacuated from the keys and given the level of destruction there, any time estimate on when people might be able to return to the keys? >> the keys are going to take a while. we have not assessed the structural integrity of the bridges there. there's early reason to believe some of the draw bridges up may or may not have been bent. so restoring those will take time. that route 1 is a loarge expansive bridge. all undergirding needs inspected. i suspect the keys not fit for regular citizenry for weeks, and if that's wrong, and i'm wrong,

fine. let the local officials bring you in. i would set that expectation pretty broad right now, and would say for the people that chose to stay, every warning to leave, we hoped they took that warning. those that didn't, we'll get there soon as we humanly can. right now, don't know. a few overflights today. the fema director is not certain yet we've had a good overflight assessment where all of those people might be. neither would be surprised if lives were lost, but neither of us would be surprised that responders will get down there progressively. doing everything to help them. i'm going to actually end on that if i could. and end where i started today's day of remembrance for 9/11. it is why i got into this business and why i believe our government is now organized for the level of response we've seen and it just goes to kind of show what we've got if we want to bring ourselves together and help our fellow humans under good leadership from president

trump. i think we put forward a good effort. please, people in florida, continue to follow the instructions of your first responders and local authorities. this isn't over yurt aet and a painful frustrating in not very frustrating week or two ahead. thank you all very much. >> thank you, tom. as he wrapped up, he reiterated the need to listen to local authorities. i know that the governor of florida is getting ready to hold a press conference. i will try to take as many questions as we can and make sure that everyone's able to tune in for that, and cover that extensively. finally, before i take your questions, several asked about the u.s. response to the ongoing violence in burma and i'd like to read part of a statement coming out shortly on that topic. the united states is deeply troubled by the ongoing crisis in burma where at least 300,000 people have fled their homes in the wake of attacks on burmese security posts on august 25th. we reiterate or condemnation of

those attacks and ensuing violence. with that i'll take your questions. jeff? >> a few questions. one, a reaction to steve bannon's comments on "60 minutes" saying that the firing of james comey was the biggest political mistake in modern history and secondly, look forward to tomorrow a little and the president's meeting with the malaysian prime minister. what do you expect to achieve during that meeting and will the president address or avoid the issue of the u.s. investigation into him? >> pretty wide ranging topics. i'll try to make sure i cover first on the comey firing. we've been clear what our position is. certainly i think that has been shown in the days that followed that the president was right in firing director comey since directors firing we've learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing including giving false

testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists, went outside the political chain of command. i think the president's been clear about his position on that front. he's very pleased with the new director. and has full confidence in his him to fumy restore and lead the fbi. in terms of malaysia and on that question, hard transition but i'll try to make sure we cover that. the united states and malaysia have had a 60-year relationship and partnership built on common economic and security interests and that continues, and the president looks forward to discussing a wide variety and wide range of regional security issues with the prime minister. and talking about ways they can strengthen counterterrorism cooperation, certainly the halt of isis. addressing north korea their continued actions, promoting maritime security in the south china sea and certainly some of the priorities of tomorrow's

meeting but i'm not getting ahead much further than that on any conversation that may take place. look, we're not going to comment on an ongoing investigation, being led by the department of justice. and that investigation is apolitical and certainly independent of anything takes place tomorrow. >> thanks, sarah. also a question on mr. bannon's interview. during that he said i think mitch mcconnell connell and to a degree paul ryan do not want president trump's agenda implemented. as obvious as night follows day. first, does the president agree with that obvious characterization of mcconnell and ryan? >> the president's committed to working with congress to get big things done. we have a very big agenda. the president wants to work with all members of congress. obviously that includes republican leadership as well as democrats. i think you saw some of the president's leadership last week when he helped strike a deal to make sure that we got the funding necessary. we're focused on moving things forward and certainly that's the

goal and priority of the administration. >> and know what he's like to see given past criticisms of mr. mcconnell and ryan would he like to see different leadership in the republican congress? >> now the president is committed to working with the leadership we have and nothing beyond that at this point. john? >> sarah a follow-up on bannon's comments. he actually -- said all that about mcconnell and ryan, also said they wanted to nullify the 2016 election results. just a simp yes or no question. does the president agree with that assessment? >> not that i'm aware but i haven't had that conversation s. he still speaking with steve bannon? >> one conversation but i don't think anything beyond that since he left. >> and steve bannon. >> popular topic. >> yeah. the president -- >> we may be answering more questions on steve bannon now that he's not here than when we was, but go ahead. >> and did the president happen to watch the interview? any reaction?

did you happen to watch the interview on "60 minutes." >> i'm not sure he saw it in its entirety. he's seen clips but i don't know he watched the entire thing. i did watch parts of it. >> what was your reaction to it? as a former colleague of yours who worked here at the white house, were you disappointed with any of his comments? surprised by any of his comments? did you like the fact a former staffer is speaking so openly about some of the inner workings of what happens at the white house on a regular basis? >> sure it made for great tv and cbs will be happy to put those ratings out. as for me, here to speak on behalf of the administration. francesca? >> and why ruin a good thing, sarah. >> is that what this is? a good thing. >> staying on the topic of steve bannon. another comment made with that d.r.e.a.m.ers consider self-

self-deporting? is that something the president thinks they should do. >> the administration is clear on our position and hoping congress will step up and do their job, fix this problem. implement response immigration reform and address that problem would be part of it. >> and a -- >> last week nancy pelosi said the president would sign the d.r.e.a.m. act. is that act krit? >> accurate? >> part would be part of that process but we want to do something that addresses a multitude of issues and, again, congress has six months to do their job. we're hopeful and confident they will. >> "60 minutes" interview steve bannon said the discussion over daca to lead to a civil war in the republican party. how and why is he wrong about that? >> i think that -- steve always likes to speak in kind of a, the most extreme measures. i'm not sure i agree with that. >> on a different perspective. >> oh, wow. >> in recent weeks -- >> maybe you get two questions

then. >> in a matter of weeks two storms categorized as once in 500 years or longer, major events hit the united states. in light of that, has the president given out that reviewing his decision to leave the paris climate accords? >> not sure specifically on the paris climate deal. he said at the time, the goal always do our very best when it comes to taking care of the environment and taking proper steps. the united states is one of the best in the world at doing this. we want to continue to do that. but right now the administration is focused on the recovery and relief efforts. and as tom said a few minutes ago, we'll look at that analysis once we get through the coming days and focus on the recovery and relief and saving lives effort. >> two questions. follow jum on the question a little here. can you clarify whether the president believes activity contributes to -- >> the president's addressed this already. >> anything changed due to any storms? >> i don't think it's changed

over the last several weeks and again, he's addressed his opinion on that several times. >> and something that happened back on august 10th, the president declaring he wanted to have a national emergency when it came to the opioid crisis. it's been more than a month since he syd that. a delay for a president who likes to do things quickly, he's often said. is the president taking this seriously enough and when will he get the ball rolling on that. >> taking it very seriously. the commission and members of the administration continued to meet and work on details of that national declaration, and that's a big priority for the administration and we'll continue to focus pushing that through. >> what's taking so long? >> a president -- >> it's a much more involved process and that's something that they're working through on the legal side. the administrative side, making sure it's done correctly. >> ask about steve -- >> tricky, tricky. >> going up to -- to talk to the

budget committee. what do they want that budget resolution to look like and does the administration support the house budget? >> i don't want to get ahead of their conversations. and i'll let secretary mnuchin i think he plans to address that in further detail tomorrow. john? >> and quickly, took criticism last week from republicans for handling of the debt deal. what does the president think of mnuchin's performance so far. >> the president has confidence in secretary mnuchin and glad he's part of the effort working with gary cohn to get tax reform down this year. >> and what as responsible for giving false testimony? do you believe that -- comey either perjured himself before congress or at the very least misled congress in this testimony? >> i think that's something probably for doj to look at. not me. i'm not an attorney. >> and tax reform.

if a big bill doesn't pass by december, would the president support adding middle-class tax cuts to the end of the year tax extender bill the congress has to pass? >> we're focused on making sure we get a complete tax reform package. that's the goal. now that's the focus. if it doesn't happen we'll look at other options. >> after the equifax leak, more regulation, is it warranted for handling of americans personal data? >> we have to look into extensively. tom bossert one of the primary people taking the lead on that front and something we have to explore all the best ways to make sure americans are protected in that sense. >> sarah -- >> thank you. >> was the president disappointed by steve bannon's comments on "60 minutes"? >> i'm not sure he was disappointed on his commentsants and secondly, did steve bannon warn the president that firing james comey would be the biggest political mistake in modern history? >> i'm not aware of that conversation ever taking place. i mentioned when we started the

governor of florida has a press conference that will senator a few minutes. i want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to tune in. the press team will be here. we're happy to answer any questions particularly if you have -- anything beyond steve bannon, more than happy to answer. thanks, guys. all right. sarah huckabee sanders leaving the press briefing. got started a little late. we had the president's national security adviser tom bossert most of that time talking about responses to hurricane irma and to, continuing responses to hurricane harvey getting a sense what the fema response will be and the federal government response is and how big it is. then when sarah huckabee sanders took the podium, the questions largely turned to the interview that "60 minutes" aired with steve bannon and the comments very critical comments that steve bannon made of the president. particularly with respect to his handling of jim comey, and other

things. hallie jackson was in that briefing room and interesting, hallie, my ears perked up when in response to the question about steve bannon saying that comey, firing james comey was a very big mistake. sarah huckabee sanders said it was the right decision. he was comfortable with it. the president. he was right in firing comb you because he gave false testimony and leaked information. one of your colleagues tried to get to the bottom what the false testimony was. what do you think of that? >> reporter: notable and steve bannon is gone from the white house most certainly not forgotten by evidence of the many questions that came from members of the press corps to sarah huckabee sanders on that "60 minutes" interview today. you're right that was a significant exchange. one sarah huckabee sanders said, hey, head over to doj for that. you know we will be doing that. to see if that is in fact something that's going to be followed up on essentially by this administration and forgive me. i want to play a little sound.

i don't know if you've already played it, an exchange related to the steve bannon questions. here. >> first on the comey firing i think we've been pretty clear what our position is. certainly i think that it has been shown in the days that followed that the president was right in firing director comey, since director's firing we've learned new information about his conduct that only provided further justification for that firing including giving false testimony, leaking privileged information to journalists went outside of the chain of command and politicized an investigation into a presidential candidate. >> and there you have the press secretary talking about the initial question on perhaps the biggest headline coming out of that interview, the idea that bannon said that is the worst mistake essentially politically in modern political history, the firing of james comey. but there was other notable moments, too. when the press secretary said the president and steve bannon only have spoken once she's

aware of over these last several weeks. since bannon resigned in the middle of august. after a year essentially of working with the president. then there was the question of leadership, too. we know, as we have actually reported oe ed over the last se day, multiple sources talking ow ban sn gearing up to fight republicans facing primary challengers in places like, for example, alabama. and so there was the leadership question as well there, ali. >> hallie, thanks very much. i want to talk a little more. governor scott is in florida where he's providing an update after getting an aerial view of the damage from irma. let's listen in. >> -- loved and lost. the bravery and selfless dedication of law enforcement and first responders, some of which tragically lost their lives running into danger to save others. i am always amazed at the resolve of law enforcement and seeing their commitments to families today as they conduct search and rescue missions to

keep people safe. today i want to thank you as coast guard. i want to thank admiral schultz for taking me on today's tour to see the damage and talk about that later. we have a wonderful coast guard, and military. i can't say enough how they've shown up and continue to show up to do the right thing. our military not only defends the freedom of this country but show up when there's a crisis. i just received a weather briefing on tropical storm's irma's continued path through our state. downgraded to a tropical storm as sustained winds of 65 miles per hour. what we're seeing across our state. storm surge across south and southwest florida range from four to eight feet. monroe county experiencing estimate of 10 feet surge at landfall. miami-dade approximately four feet of storm surge. interesting about the storm surge, totally different than andrew. a lot of it, remember, andrew, didn't see the storm surge, more of a wind event.

tampa, two to four feet of storm surge and lasting throughout today. seeing surge of three to six feet along the big bend, the panhandle further last year and irma significant storm surge and saw a lot of damage. central florida, orlando area, essential flooding due to torrential rain of more than a foot. jacksonville, storm surge three to four feet on top of a foot of rainfall causing record and historical flooding along the st. john's river. also explain to me this morning in a weather briefing that hurricane jose is also pushing water into the northern part of our state, which is preventing the water from flowing out as fast. i spoke to jacksonville mayor this morning and assured him resources are being deployed. fish and wildlife immediately deployed teams. 22 officers, ten boats prestaimped into jacksonville.

we'll do every we did. the way i look at it, as governor and all of us think this way, we want to keep everybody safe through the storm and want to keep everybody safe back after the storm and get everybody back to a normal life as quickly as possible. also beav deployed a 25-person team in the operation center to the emergency operation center in putnam, duvall and clay counties in response to the historic flooding and will continue to send resources to jacksonville and any other community in need. rainfall exceeding a foot in many communities in northeast central and southwest florida. portion of the heaviest rains cleared the state. however, this rain caused flash flooding in northeast florida. rivers across the state continue to rise and standing water remains an issue over the entire peninsula. the biggest threat for this week as irma leaves florida, river flooding. most of that will be in the northern part of the state. stay tuned to local advisories for river flood watches and

warnings. families in northwest florida and the tampa bay area, be especially vigilant. flood levels to run into the weekend. we generally see that in the i-4 corridor and north. the heaviest winds have left florida but the entire peninsula experienced at least tropicalforce winds, hurricane gusts as forth east and north at jacksonville. thankfully the threat of tornadoes diminished. received several reports of tornadoes including two in brevard county. the national weather service is working to confirm these given this weather report if your family and you and your family have evacuated, it's extremely important to check with local officials before returning home to make sure you can safely do so. don't go back -- don't think because this has passed you can run home. we have downed power lines across the state. we've got roads that are impassable. we have debris all over the state.

our goal again is, don't put anymore lives at risk. we already went through a hoar reynoldous storm. don't put your life at risk because of downed power lines, debris, impassable roads. this morning i had the opportunity to travel with the coast guard and the admiral to survey damage throughout the west coast of florida and keys. i want to thank the coast guard for this opportunity. what we saw. we saw the -- remnants of the storm surge along the west coast, but we didn't see what we -- i didn't see the damage i thought i would see. clearly we saw homes that were messed up. clearly saw roofs off. we clearly saw boats out of place and things like that, but i thought we would see more damage. there's still flooding. still sand on the roads and things like that, but on the west coast, this is confirmed by the mayors i've spoken to today, it's not as bad as we thought the storm surge would do. now, when you get to the keys, we were able to fly in to the

naval station in key west. which as of just a few hours before we landed had significant water still on it but worked to clear that. went over all of that area. we saw a lot of boats wash ashored. we saw any basically almost every trailer park overturned. i don't think i saw one trailer park almost everything wasn't overturned. still saw a lot of flood damage and from talking to the officials down in the keys, the water, it's not working. sewer's not working. there's no electricity. so it's very tough. the national guard -- michael calhoun, they've gone all the way down to the keys. all the bridges are passable. roads are passable. however, clearly bridge damage. clearly road damage. you can get down there, and traffic, not a lot of traffic which is good. it's moving.

my heart goes out to the people in the keys. i mean, it's -- there's devastation. it's -- and you know, i just -- i just hope everybody, you know, survived. it's -- it's horrible what we saw. i know for our entire state especially for the keys it's going to be a long road. there's a lot of damage. i want-i know everybody wants to get back to normal. everyone wants to get started. again, we've got to be patient, get the first responders in the keys, get the water going again, electricity going again sewers going again. it's going to take a lot of time. i can tell you, everybody at the local level, state and federal level, everybody's working hard. our brave members of local, state law enforcement, military members working around the clock to save people's lives. rescue teams with all sorts of equipment trying to make sure we don't lose anybody.

if anybody's in harm's way, you can call your local law enforcement 1-800-342-3775. somebody will show up. we're working with fema. i can tell you the white house has been outstanding. i've talked to president trump three times yesterday. i've talked to administrator, brock long with fema today, multiple times yesterday. talked to many cabinet members. i was, talked to vice president pence yesterday. the white house and everybody at the federal level is showing up and going to, my belief, show up, do everything they can. talk about a little the missions, the resources they're providing. the -- let's see. d.o.t. is working hard to clear roads. inspect bridges across the state. we need d.o.t. to inspect bridges before people go back. barrier islands and places like that a top priority after

matthew. if you don't mean to be on the roads, don't get out. there's still for, again, power lines. all sorts of things like that we're working on. let me go on down. i've never used this, to do this before. the u.s. navy, navy, coast guard, everybody providing resources. navy deployed, usa of iwo jima, uss new york and abraham linking helping with search and rescue and a lot of other things. power outages. we have about 65% of state without power. it's going to take a long time. to get power back. talking to utilities. having daily calls with utilities to get power back on. they're doing everything they can. talking to nursing homes all morning. talking to assisted living. everybody needs power back on. i can tell you that they're

bringing in 23,000 members. this is just for the utilities they're doing. not including the federal government or support of military. fuel. doing everything we can to get fuel back in the state. you all know we had fuel shortages last week. outages. a lot of shortages. we -- to two ports in tampa and port everglades, both have nuell their tankses they had to have in their tanks during the hurricane. we're getting that out through -- through our carriers. we're giving them law enforcementers skorts. t t escorts and same with utilities. get the trucks out as possible. prepositioned as many as we could. some we couldn't and getting them from other states as much as possible. i can tell you everybody will work hard. the way i think about it is, we got to keep every safe. got to get our hospitals back open. got to get fuel back here. got to get our roads opened. we got to get everybody

electricity back and i can't tell you anybody that's not working. my experience is everybody is working their tail off and unfortunately everybody has to be patient. a lot of work to get this done. this is not an insignificant storm. this impacted -- what's different here, it impacted our state. you could usually preposition assets on one-half of the state or other. you couldn't on this one. it came all the way down the state. a lot of work. i thank everybody starting with the president. thank everybody, the federal government, the local government. thank everybody at state government. they have busted their rear keeping us all safe. it's my unique opportunity to introduce somebody i've enjoyed traveling with today and i know that with his leadership the coast guard will be unbelievable of a partner in this. admiral schultz. >> thank you. good afternoon. as our acting secretary elaine duke said this morning, the department of homeland security hey been preparing for irma to arrive first in the caribbean and here in florida more than a

week. coast guard reconstituting forces. first aircraft in miami in clearwater. helicopters arrived from sea base cutters and reconstituting -- we've been listening to florida governor rick scott, handed it over to the coast guard and we will monitor for the coast guard response and information we need to pass on to you. i want to go to sam champion standing by in miami, recapping and discussing important things we've heard from both the governor and from tom bossert before that at the white house. a few interesting things, sam. dump it on you. what stands out. sound like they're reconditions carriers for help into the keys where it's hard to get vehicles. >> yep. >> they're going to be fuel trucks and electric line trucks and utilities continue to be escorted south. using law enforcement vehicles. we saw that before the storm. understand from tom bossert there are line crews coming from canada, as far as canada.

when this is typical sam, seen big storms you see for days and days on the highways leading into the area, utilities trucks and line, electrical line trucks, tree cutting trucks from days tans places. in full response mode now. sam? >> reporter: absolutely. ali, exactly what you want to hear. what people in south florida want to hear, because today -- remember, ali, when you and i talked a day, two days ago we shed this would be an all-florida storm. this storm, irma, landfall in the keys, in southwest florida, causing flooding now in northeastern florida, and so it is. it's an all-state problem and cleanup. a massive undertaking. people who are even here on miami beach and in miami proper don't have water. don't have power. in a lot of these areas. you can't have an area this big with 80% of the people without power, without having a huge power issue. it wasn't until that briefing, ali, i think i understood how

difficult it would be to get the power back on. they have to notify homeowners. we're not talking two, three days. that's something for me, this is my neighborhood. for me as a homeowner, me as someone who lives here that made me goek, ru-ro. even when you hear that, first time, doesn't drill down. an important thing to these people down here. >> sam, let's talk -- by the way -- >> reporter: go ahead. >> it is amazing. looking there. it looks like absolutely perfect weather. the governor says in places where trees and power lines are down, they need to fix them. don't wander about. people get cabin fever. stuck inside their places and want to get out when the weather is good. i want to quickly ask you about jacksonville. the storm went in the other direction. wasn't supposed to have a lot of effects on jacksonville, but the st. john's river, flowing north,

not south. flowing north out into the atlantic. got blocked up by the high tide and the storm surge coming in. and now we are looking at pictures of jacksonville where there is substantial flooding. >> reporter: so that's a real issue. and it's a real problem for jacksonville. a lot of these communities in jacksonville will flood, just with a very, a high astronomical tide where water is pushed in to the st. john's river. and it's blocked, can't get out. a persistent west wind with 9 to 12 inches of rain. ali we have a weather setup shown. run through it quickly. i think it shows the problem in jacksonville, florida, and wants to come into tennessee. a quick look at irma, dealing with a tropical storm there. here's the short path on this thing. thi still 60 mile-per-hour winds wrapped up in the center through monday. through south georgia, north of montgomery, alabama, and still sitting there in just outside of tennessee. by the time you get to tuesday,

7:00 a.m., 35 mile-per-hour winds. as you get later into wednesday, still have 25 mile-per-hour winds. pretty extensive system that moves into central tennessee, and dumps what will be four, five inches of rain along the way in georgia all the way into tennessee. here's the rainfall total so far. you can see jacksonville is official. it's at nine. i've heard many reports from friends and did weather in jacksonville two years before moving to new york. friends there telling me they've had a foot. they've seen neighborhoods flood in jacksonville they have never seen flood before, and not certainly to this extent. so here's the rainfall forecast we still have left in the storm. you can see, the winds, just looking at the banding of the rain, generally you can tell this wind is still blowing on the south carolina coast. jacksonville, savannah, charleston, all of those communities. st. augustine. don't leave them out. they had flooding as well, ali. all of this is pulleyiing away o south carolina and heavy rain. not done with the storm or

flooding in northern communities in the southeast. >> sam, factcheck.org listening to you and all the places you claimed to have worked. you would be much older than you appear to be. jacksonville, all of these years before you got to new york, in new york like 18 years. with the weather channel six years. i mean, i'm adding it all up. 34 years in the business never got a break for god's sake. thanks for all your coverage. >> i love you, ali. >> a difficult topic to cover. having somebodies with his experience really, really helps. when all is said and done, jacksonville, remember this, the biggest city by area in the entire continental united states. the city saw record-setting flooding and significant damage. morgan radford is in jacksonville with more. morgan? >> reporter: we're in downtown jacksonville, florida. you can see behind me the entire

downtown has been flooded. and to give you a sense of the depth of these waters, i'm about 5'10". look at this. half way up my calves and this water is expected to rise right around this time another four or five feet. the river to our left has just been cresting over and that's what we expect to see throughout the day as these waters continue to rise. there are people in apartment buildings over here to our right and the water's been rushing past their front doors as these people are trying to get out. earlier today we were in gainesville, florida. there we saw about 50,000 people in the county without power. 21 shelters throughout the county have been set up and remember, this is home to the university of florida over there in gainesville. so there's about 160,000 residents, when school is in session nap shelter, the primary shelter of the university, already at capacity. students encouraged to bring their parents to safety. two of the special needs shelters throughout the community almost at capacity and people were being advised to stay off the roads. as we were coming here, driving

from gainesville to jacksonville, i saw a woman who's house had been flooded. i walked to the edge of the water and shouted to her at her front porch and said, are you okay? do you need water? we have snacks in our vehicles. i put on my waders, made it to her front door. in all of my time, never seen flooding in my area quite like this and described how she use add mattress to create a safe zone in her hallway with two young daughters and said, look, when you're taking care of your own life, that's one level of responsibility. taking care of your children, that's a completely different level's fear, responsibility, and safety that you now have to be responsible for. so those are the kinds of stories we're hearing in this section of florida. as people are not only contending with the aftermath of irma but also contending now with rising waters and trying to figure out just how much more damage they can take. >> rising waters is a very big deal. morgan radford in jacksonville. something that florida contends

with regardless of whether or not there is a hurricane. there are rising waters all through florida. we'll talk about this when we come back. up next, heading back to florida. gottie schwartz just back from surveying damage in the keys. an area particularly hard-hit by the wrath of irma. where it made landfall in florida. we're continuing, when we come back. you're watching msnbc.

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look at this. ali velshi is back. i don't usually refer to myself in the third person. just thought i'd tell you, it's me. gottie schwartz is on the phone traveling between marathon, florida, and isle ma laamorada, from the keys. there's one main road from key west all the way to the florida mainland. how much of it have you seen and what kind of shape are the roads and the communities in? >> reporter: yes. so it sounds like the road is being shut down in different parts. emergency crews are now in there trying to get debris off the roads so people can come through safely, but most of the keys, from what i understand, is not

accessible for the public. trying to head south back into your home in the florida keys, you can't do that right now. they're still keeping people back and one of the reasons we can't broadcast out video right now. we're trying to trying to get back to the mainland. but we've been all the way down to key west, and there was a lot of fear that key west had gotten hit. very difficult to talk to people down there. a lot of rumors going around. we just came back from there. the good news is most of the damage is not structure. it's mostly trees down, lines down. there are some places that were hit pretty hard. one of the places we saw some of the worst damage. also cujo was where the eye of the storm first made landfall. those are areas it didn't matter if you had a concrete home, in some parts of it or things like a mobile home.

[ inaudible ]. neighborhoods where the hurricane actually -- and into the yards. there's going to be some -- [ inaudible ]. >> we're losing gadi's audio. it's very hard just to establish contact with gadi since he's been in the keys but he has been from key west all the way to island marada and marathon. we saw winds of 120 miles per hour. those areas have suffered as gadi is saying, structural damage. we've seen boats and cars moved. houses emptied of things. key west, many of you have been asking, what's the situation in key west. i spoke to the custodian of the

hemingway house last night on the phone. he said it was okay but it's a solidly built cinderblock house. gadi is now saying limited structural damage in key west but in the areas in which the storm made landfall in big pine, there is, in fact, structural damage in those areas. we'll try to get more from gadi and also the video. again, it's very hard to get communication from there. he's going to get that video. as soon as we get it, we're bringing it to you on tv. the president and vice present, remember, it is 9/11 today. they were participating in their first 9/11 commemoration since being in office. >> we pledge to never, ever forget them. >> i will always believe that i and many others in our nation's capital were able to go home that day to hug our families because of the courage and

selflessness of the heros of flight 93. [ bell chiming ] >> the ceremonies marked 16 years since the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and changed the world forever. the first commercial jet slammed into the north tower at 8:46 that morning. a few minutes later, a second jet slammed into the south tower. then a third jet crashed into the western portion here of the pentagon. news of these things reached the passengers on united flight 93. that flight had been westbound and hijacked, but the people on board fought back, and that many went straight down into the ground in shanksville, pennsylvania. i'm joined by a man who you know from my show but he knows that

story all too well. ali sufan is a former fbi special agent with a focus on counterterrorism and he's the ceo of the sufan group. what we don't tell you is his fbi boss and friend, the man who recruited him, john o'neil, this man died in the attacks. o'neil had just left the fbi. he had started a job as the head of security at the world trade center just weeks before the attacks. and he perished in those attacks. he's the man who found you, recruited you, got you in. got you onto the terrorism beat. and at 9/11, you were chasing terrorists. it wasn't even really a well-known and popular thing. the "uss cole" had been bombed. the embassies in tanzania and kenya had been bombed. you were on that beat and you lost a friend. >> i was in yemen and every year the anniversary is just a moment of reflection to me. but, you know, even after 16 years, my mind still churns with

questions. why, for example, why were two known al qaeda operatives, future hijackers, future 9/11 hijackers not placed on a watch list or a no-fly list, despite having been granted valid u.s. visas? why was information connecting them to the "uss cole" not shared with my team investigating the attack? why were the same two hijackers in contact with saudi officials, resident in the united states in the time or in the month leading up to the attacks? lots of questions. but the ultimate question of them all, if we were armed with the right information, could we have stopped the attack? could we have saved lives to include lives of colleagues and friends, to include the lives of john o'neil and lenny hadden and so many other people that we lost on that day?

and only when we know that, we can start turning the page. only when we have full transparency on all these issues we, as a nation, me as individual, can find peace with what happened. but, unfortunately, the lack of answers, the lack of answers in this, is going to just fuel conspiracy theories. some of it is decisive, some is insulting and some is crazy. >> and some of it is nonsense. you've written a book about this called "the black banners." it's a comprehensive history of the background to the terrorists who led to these attacks. in it, you come to a conclusion that others have come to, and that is that there has not -- there was not adequate coordination between the intelligence agencies in the united states. if you took them all together, we did have more information than you and your colleagues were able to act on. >> yes. >> has that changed? has the coordination, the concept of a department of

homeland security and a secretary, the animus between the cia and fbi, has that kind of stuff changed? >> i think we came a long way. and, yes, i think we are in a way better position. we have been very successful. if you look at the successes we had since 9/11 until now, we prevented al qaeda from doing another 9/11. that's what they wanted to do. but i think that's not enough. the intelligence community, the relationship between the intelligence community and all the different agencies, they are doing fantastic job. the problem is, with our political leadership and that's not only with this administration, but with any other administration and every administration before them. they haven't been focused about the ideology. they haven't been focused on the incubating factors that led to the blunder of 9/11. i'm scared if we don't focus on these again, that blunder might happen. al qaeda is still there. the threat that materialized itself on 9/11, or we saw

materialize on 9/11 had not gone away. it's still there. and al qaeda and isirks all these organizations, they belong to the poisonous tree that osama bin laden planted. and now they're going through a period of consolidation. a period of recovery and after they do that, they will focus their attention again on the united states. and we have to be very careful in preventing that before it happens. >> 16 years later, it's not closure. it's not even able to relax. you are saug we have to continue to be on our guard for the type of thing that happened. ali, thank you for joining me. we always call upon you for your particular expertise. i know this day every year is a hard one for you. ali soufan is a former fbi special agent with a focus on counterterrorism. he, like many americans, remembers this day in a very, very, very personal way. before we go, we want to

show you some video that is just in from st. john's in the u.s. virgin islands. irma's wrath hit that caribbean island hard. the storm ripped several islands to shreds and left little behind. what was once considered tropical paradise is now a living nightmare for thousands faced with the huge task of picking up the pieces. recovery could take years. and the money to rebuild is simply not there in many cases. we're going to be speaking with representative stacey plaska for the virgin islands. she was on my show a couple of days ago. she's gone back to the virgin islands. we're going to get her back on air to give us a first-person update on the situation in st. thomas u.s. virgin islands. that brings today's busy hour to a close for me. i'll see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. with stephanie ruhle and at 3:00 p.m.

"deadline: white house" with nicolle wallace starts right now. >> we're going to bring you the latesta tropical storm irma and cover the latest headlines, including a concession from the president's ideological soulmate who said firing jim comey was the biggest mistake in modern political history. first tropical storm irma making its way toward georgia, but not before battering much of the state of georgia with wind, rain and flooding. we're likely through the worst of the wind damage, those floods are still a serious risk for low-lying cities in its path. about two-thirds of the state, upwards of 6 million people, are without power in florida. and we are just now starting to get a full picture of the devastation in areas like the florida keys as well as cuba, the british virgin islands and the rest of the caribbean where at least 36 people have lost their lives.